February 11, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Pauses Without Peace: What Last Year’s Ceasefires Reveal About Global Conflict Management
What if the United States isn’t ending wars, just interrupting them?Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly described himself as a “President of Peace” — has intervened to halt...
What if the United States isn’t ending wars, just interrupting them?Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump — who has repeatedly described himself as a “President of Peace” — has intervened to halt conflicts across multiple crisis theaters. From Gaza and the Israel–Iran confrontation to Ukraine, the India–Pakistan conflict, and Southeast Asia’s Thailand–Cambodia border, U.S. diplomatic pressure helped impose ceasefires, halt escalation, and stabilize front lines.
At the same time, the United States conducted hundreds of air and missile strikes across the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and beyond, underscoring a striking paradox at the heart of Trump-era statecraft: a presidency that claims to end wars while relying heavily on coercive force to manage them. In each of these theaters, violence was paused, not resolved. Ceasefires held temporarily — political settlements did not.This pattern raises a central puzzle.